Team Announces Water Footprint Implementation Partnership

11th Hour Racing Team furthers sustainability goals with Water Footprint Implementation partnership.

Pulling out all the stops in our quest for a water neutral campaign, we’re teaming up with Dutch organization, Water Footprint Implementation.

The Netherlands-based body will be helping to quantify and manage our direct and indirect water use until the end of The Ocean Race 2022-23. We’ll be working with them to track water usage, reduce consumption, and compensate for the unavoidable remaining footprint from our campaign.

A ‘water footprint’ isn’t simply the amount of water that comes out of a tap. Every product and service used takes water to make or provide – whether that’s materials for our boat build, our clothing or the equipment taken onboard for each race. This is known as ‘embedded water’ and accounts for the indirect water use. When products are traded across borders, there is also a ‘virtual water’ trade taking place. By monitoring our use of this finite resource, we can learn where the water is coming from and how it may be impacting these often distant regions, allowing conscious choices when purchasing goods.

To ensure accuracy in the data, our goal is to include embedded water consumption, as well as direct water consumption, in our overall footprint calculations. 

“Partnering with Water Footprint Implementation is step one of many as we seek to minimize our water footprint, and aspire to run a net positive  campaign across all our sectors of operation and influence – having a regenerative  impact on our environment,” explained Damian Foxall, our Sustainability Program Manager. “Their expertise will enable us to fully assess our campaign’s impact, allowing us to build an effective strategy to mitigate our water use and optimize opportunities for making considered choices when purchasing our goods and supplies. It’s important that we understand, and take responsibility for, our impacts in any given sector – only then can we begin to make powerful and constructive changes that will improve the health of our planet.”

According to the World Wildlife Fund, if global water consumption continues at the current level, two-thirds of the world’s population could be affected by water scarcity by 2025. In order to better understand issues like water shortages and pollution, Water Footprint Implementation examines production and supply chains as a whole, helping governments and organizations reduce their impact on water sources.

“We’re very excited to work with the 11th Hour Racing Team on their water sustainability journey,” said Ioana Dobrescu, the project lead from Water Footprint Implementation. “Obtaining a precise insight into the embedded water in the different materials the Team uses for the boat or in their day to day activities during the race will be complex and challenging but it is indispensable to inform reduction strategies and compensation options.

“What we find particularly unique about this partnership is the possibility for Water Footprint to use a previously unexplored field such as marine sports to raise awareness globally about the virtual water trade. The Ocean Race is a great ‘stage’, as virtual water trade takes place for a major part, via cargo shipping on marine waters which is not visible to us as consumers. Juxtaposing examples of virtual water trade from one stopover to the next we hope will trigger the wider community to consider their water consumption.”For more information on our sustainability program, please click here.